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Case Study: Conversions to Black & White

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EddyH View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote EddyH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Case Study: Conversions to Black & White
    Posted: 03 November 2010 at 18:03
Nice post! I work in the printing industry and I know that people are struggling with B/W conversions...

But myself, I'm a bit lazy... I process my RAW-files with DxO, including DxO Filmpack, which is really great to similate the appearance of good old B/W films (21 of them, plus all kinds of tonings, with or without similation of grain). In the old days I really liked the Kodak Tri-X, developped in Rodinal. Now I can simulate it (more or less) with DxO.

Of course there are also other tools, which will simulate the properties of old B/W films. If you like B/W they're really worth while to test.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote romke Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 November 2010 at 17:15
Those who use Lr could perhaps find the following useful.

If having a color image open either in "Library" or in "Development" pressing the "V" key on the keyboard toggles between color and B&W. it thus gives a immediate view of what it could look like. the image is rendered in the basic B&W treatment, so it may need (quite) a bit of adjustment, but it is a easy way to screen a number of images fast on their suitability for conversion to B&W.

When converting color images to B&W in Lr there are various ways to do it. The most attractive way is to go to the "Color Adjustments Panel" and then reduce the saturation to -100 for all the 8 channels/colors. That is a bit of work, but it can be set to a preset

The nice thing about using the "Color Adjustment Panel" to reduce the saturation (in comparison to doing it in the "basic" panel) is that all the color adjustment possibilities still are available. You thus can for example change the luminance of individual colors to change the look of the image dramatically. this gives you far more control over the end result then other methods in Lr.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote alpha_in_exile Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2008 at 02:38
GIMP users will find this tutorial useful, though the menus of the current GIMP version have changed slightly from those of the version that was out when the tutorial was written.

Specifically, all of the functions were moved from the "Image" menu to the "Colors" menu.

The linked tutorial covers greyscale conversion, desaturation, decomposing, and channel mixing.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Micholand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 September 2008 at 19:45
Seems as the Calculations tutorial posted above is meanwhile down

But I recently found another one


Edited by Micholand - 30 May 2013 at 08:16
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Micholand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2008 at 18:11
Originally posted by wattsbw2004 wattsbw2004 wrote:

What about using the calculations technique that Scott Kelby talks about in his Photoshop CS3 for photographers book. Thas also one worth mentioning because it creates some dramatic B&W images.
Many thanks for pointing this out!
You're absolutely right, besides the described "basic" ways there is another special method to convert a colour photo to black and white which is using "Calculations" in Photoshop. It's quite similar to the channel mixer, but it does have it's own individual style of desaturating things. I disregarded it though as it's somehow an advanced method and also Photoshop specific, but it's certainly worth mentioning.


In short:

The Calculations Method allows you to combine two colour channels of your image into a black and white image. The Calculations dialogue lets you choose which channels to combine - the red, green, blue and grey channel - and how to combine these two by the use of different blending modes and amount of opacity.

There isn't a lot of "how-to" information about using Calculations, however I was happy to find this very good online tutorial "The Calculations Method - Photoshop Tutorials" that walks through the process in detail and with good explanation.

Edited by Micholand - 18 May 2008 at 18:13
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Post Options Post Options   Quote wattsbw2004 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 May 2008 at 22:15
What about using the calculations technique that Scott Kelby talks about in his Photoshop CS3 for photographers book. Thas also one worth mentioning because it creates some dramatic B&W images.
 



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Post Options Post Options   Quote David_S Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 May 2008 at 14:13
Thanks for this article since there are so many images that look better in B&W IMO. Just a tip for those out there using CS3 it has a B&W adjustment mode that allows you to individually adjust the CMYRGB channels which is really nice for some fine tuning of a B&W conversion. Of course being as daft as I am I only recently discovered this and have been using CS3 for a year or more I think
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Post Options Post Options   Quote maewpa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 May 2008 at 12:42
I also find this incredibly useful. It lost me first time around, but when I want back and put a little effort in, it all made sense. Thanks, Michael, for sharing. And the examples from Bob J are icing on the cake.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote alphadog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2008 at 21:38
Very interesting reading and great examples. Thanks Micholand & Bob J!
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Dirk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 April 2008 at 09:38
Originally posted by Dirk Dirk wrote:

Thank you Micholand, a great article that will help to enhance my skills.

And to 2nd Polossatik, sorry Bob, thanks a lot for the examples.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote polossatik Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 April 2008 at 02:02
Originally posted by Micholand Micholand wrote:

I'm glad you all found my article useful


I just noticed that in all my joy I forgot to thank Bob J, who's examples are indeed more saying then 1000 words!

The Dyxum Knowledge Base is indeed just this, a *Knowledge* Base.

As ever, a big thank you for everyone to do this!
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Micholand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 April 2008 at 20:04
I'm glad you all found my article useful
To be honest, at first I was a bit surprised about the lack of responses after it was rolled out, but with such nice feedback now I think it was worth the effort. Anyway, looking forward to see some of your b&w attempts in the Dyxum Photographs.

Originally posted by Frankman Frankman wrote:

I've played a bit with B&W conversions, but I can never tell when I've got the ratio of channels right when using the channel mixer technique. I guess it's all trial and error and developing "the eye".
You definitely need some kind of "b&w view/eye" for this, so try to think in terms of colour filters, which detail should be bright or dark and then adjust the corresponding or complementary colour out of the wheel of colour.
As a general starting point analyze the individual channels first, choose which channels offer you the most detail and tonality on an image by image basis. Select the channel with the most detail to be the dominant channel for the channel mixer and then adjust the sliders to add/subtract some of the other colour channels. The choices made are purely aesthetic. In order to maintain the density or overall brightness of the image, the percentage totals should not exceed 100% otherwise there is a risk of losing highlight information. Play! There are many interpretations possible, in the end it's always a personal thing, everyone to his taste

Edited by Micholand - 27 April 2008 at 20:06
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Post Options Post Options   Quote redmalloc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 April 2008 at 02:43
Originally posted by polossatik polossatik wrote:

Now look at this, I was just playing around with b&w,not happy with the result and searching for posts about this on my favorite forum about converting to b&w and bam!

Micholand, you made my day :)


My sentiment exactly!

I never thought about using different color modes. What an idea. So simple and obvious once someone tells you
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Post Options Post Options   Quote danny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 April 2008 at 00:55
I've been searching for something this for a while. Thank you very much for investing the time to share!
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